1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reagent for detecting occult blood contained in human feces or urine (hereinafter called excretion).
2. Prior Art
It is hard to detect grossly the occult blood which is a trace hemorrhage in the human digestive tract or urinary organ. If the occult blood is detected, however, ulcer or tumor of digestive tract, infection of urinary tract, stone, tumor, blood disease or other intractable diseases may be detected in an early stage before advanced too much in symptoms, so that the progress of refractory diseases may be prevented.
Therefore, the occult blood reaction for detecting whether occult blood is contained in feces or other excretion or not has been attempted hitherto in various manners. Among such manners, catalyst have commonly been used. The principle of these manners is as follows.
That is, (a) acetic acid is caused to act in the hemoglobin in blood to form hematin acetate, and by making use of its catalytic action, the reagent such as orthotoluidine, phenolphthalein, benzidine and guaiacol acid is oxidized by hydrogen peroxide, and the occult blood is determined by the developed color.
(b) Aside from such catalytic method, recently, computer-assisted diagnostic apparatus have been developed to attempt early discovery of focus.
In the catalytic method (a), however, the reagent includes carcinogenic substance such as benzidine.
In the computer apparatus (b), a huge system is needed and it is very costly, and aside from the economical reason for patients, specialists were necessary to interpret the results of computer diagnosis.